"Politicians are predisposed not to
see spending Other People’s Money as
a problem, because spending Other
People’s Money is what politicians
do for a living. If
politicians thought there were
something wrong with it, they would
be in a different line of
work.

"If, by some epiphany, a politician
were to realize that spending Other
People’s Money is wrecking our health
care sector, he would be loath
to point it out. Doing so
would only encourage voters to
question whether spending Other
People’s Money causes problems
everywhere else too." --
Michael F. Cannon, HERE

"Under every stone lurks a
politician." -- AristophanesOBSERVATIONS ON
POLITICIANS

>>>
"To err is human, but it
takes a politician to really screw things
up." -- Old American Adage <<<

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding
it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly,
and applying the wrong remedy."

Groucho Marx:

"Those are my principles. If
you don't like them, I have others."

P.J. O'Rourke:

"Giving money and power to the government is like
giving car keys and whisky to teenage boys.""When politics are used to allocate resources, the
resources all end up being allocated to politics.""Politics is the business of getting power and
privilege without possessing merit. A politician
is anyone who asks individuals to surrender part of
their liberty -- their power and privilege -- to State,
Masses, Mankind, Planet Earth, or whatever. This
state, those masses, that mankind, and the planet will
then be run by ... politicians.""God has no role to play in politics except to make
sure politicians go where they belong. To hell.""Politicians are
interested in people. Not that this is always a
virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs."

Judge Gideon J. Tucker, 1866:

"No man's life, liberty or property
are safe while the Legislature is in session."

Will Rogers:

"This country has come to feel the same when congress
is in session as when a baby gets hold of a hammer.""It is awful hard to get people interested in
corruption unless they can get some of it.""The more you read and observe about this Politics
thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than
the other. The one that's out always looks the
best.""A politician is just like a pickpocket; it's almost
impossible to get him to reform."

Joseph Sobran:

"The difference between a
politician and a pickpocket is that a pickpocket doesn't
always get indignant when you tell him to keep his hands
to himself." "Politicians never accuse you of 'greed' for
wanting other people's money -- only for wanting to keep
your own money."
"Politics is the conspiracy of the unproductive but
organized against the productive but unorganized."

Davy Crockett:

"There ain't no ticks like poly-ticks.
Bloodsuckers all."

H. L. Mencken:

"If a politician found he had
cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them
missionaries for dinner.""Looking for an honest politician is like looking for
an ethical burglar."

Mark Twain:

"There is no distinctly native American criminal
class except Congress.""We have the best congress money can buy.""Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you
were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."

Henry Cate VII:

"The problem with political jokes
is they get elected."

Thomas Sowell:

"There is nothing so bad that politics cannot make
it worse." "Too many people in Washington are full of
themselves, among other things that they are full
of.""There is nothing that politicians like better than
handing out benefits to be paid for by someone else." "In politics, the truth is strictly optional and
that also seems to be true in parts of the media.""It is truly a triumph of rhetoric over reality when
people can believe that going into politics is 'public
service,' but that producing food, shelter,
transportation, or medical care is not." "You have to have a sense of humor if you follow
politics. Otherwise, the sheer fraudulence of it all
will get you down.""What is history but the story of how politicians
have squandered the blood and treasure of the human
race?" "If politicians stopped meddling with things they
didn’t understand, there would be a more drastic
reduction in the size of government than anyone in
either party advocates."
"Congressman Frank and Senator Dodd wanted the government
to push financial institutions to lend to people they
would not lend to otherwise, because of the risk of
default. ... The idea that politicians can assess risks
better than people who have spent their whole careers
assessing risks should have been so obviously absurd that
no one would take it seriously."

Charles Dudley Warner,My Summer in a Garden, 1870

"Politics makes strange
bedfellows."

Charles Peacock:

"I'm a politician, and as a politician I have the
prerogative to lie whenever I want."

Charles De Gaulle:

"Since a politician never believes
what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his
word."

Charley Reese 10/20/99:

"Experience to a politician is like experience to a
prostitute -- not much to recommend them."

Ronald Reagan:

"Politics is supposed to be the
second oldest profession. I have come to realize
that it bears a very close resemblance to the
first."

Steve Chapman 7/14/05:

"Politicians may think prostitution is a grim,
degrading life. But prostitutes think the same of
politics."

Neal Boortz:

"If there were any people safe to
criticize, they'd be politicians and child molesters,
doncha think?"

Rick Gaber:

"The politician is a type of creature known for its
propensity to lie, exaggerate, embellish, and use all
kinds of hysterical or bombastic attention-getting."

William F. Buckley, Jr.:

"No one since the Garden of Eden --
which the serpent forsook in order to run for higher
office -- has imputed to politicians great purity of
motive."

Drew Carey:

"Isn't it amazing that the Germans call their city
halls 'rat houses'? That's what we should
call our city halls!"

Dave Barry:

"A child can go only so far in life
without potty training. It is not mere coincidence
that six of the last seven presidents were potty
trained, not to mention nearly half of the nation's
state legislators."

Gerald Warner:

"We should be long past applauding politicians of any
hue: they got us into this mess. The best deserve a
probationary opportunity to prove themselves, the worst
should be in jail."

Milton Friedman:

“If you really want to engage in
policy activity, don’t make that your vocation.
Make it your avocation. Get a job. Get a
secure base of income. Otherwise, you’re going to
get corrupted and destroyed.”
"One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and
programs by their intentions rather than their results."

G. K. Chesterton:

"It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians
are hanged."

.

....

"It was sooo cold this morning, I actually saw a
politician with his hands in his OWN pockets!" -- Katt
Country

"In medicine, it has long been recognized that
even a quack remedy that is harmless in itself can be
fatal when it substitutes for an effective medication
or treatment. The time is overdue for that same
recognition to apply to politics." -- Dr.
Thomas
Sowell

"Scratch the surface of an endemic problem --
famine, illness, poverty -- and you invariably find a
politician at the source." -- Simon Carr, in his
review of The Mystery of Capital by Hernando
de Soto

"Politics is perhaps the only profession for which
no preparation is thought necessary." -- Robert Louis
Stevenson

"You can bet the rent money that whatever
politicians do will end up harming consumers. ...
Economic ignorance is to politicians what idle hands
are to the devil. Both provide the workshop for
the creation of evil." -- Walter E. Williams

"A famous French economist by the name of Frederic
Bastiat once suggested that when social policies turn
out to be harmful to the citizenry, it is because
politicians often react to economic problems that they
can see, without any regard for the unforeseen
consequences of their solutions to those problems." --
Jack Chambless

"Politicians, like bombers, seldom see their
victims..." -- Donald Boudreaux, in his
article, "Losing Touch". located HERE.
In
all fairness, Dr. Boudreaux also says, "Friends of
liberty do their cause no favors by exaggerating the
moral shortcomings of politicians or by portraying them
as inherently stupid, fiendish, or sinister."
"Okay then, how about misguided, careless, amoral,
desperate or blind?" -- Dan Jergens

"Politicians are notoriously economically
illiterate*. And even when they know what would
be the right thing, we don't really expect them
to do it." -- Harry Browne

"Most elected officials cling to their ideological
biases, despite the real-world facts that disprove
their theories time and again. Most have no common
sense, and most never acknowledge that they were
wrong." -
Larry Kudlow

"Every time a politician says "a job was
created!!!" by government spending, you know damn well
at least TWO jobs (if not a lot more) were NOT created
in the private sector as a result. Google &
YouTube "THE BROKEN WINDOW FALLACY." -- Bert
Rand

"The politicians should not tell the people to shut
up." -- John Stossel

"It is truly a triumph of rhetoric over reality
when people can believe that going into politics is 'public
service,' but that producing food, shelter,
transportation, or medical care is not." -- Thomas Sowell

"One Blue Dog Democratic House Member
reminded me earlier this month of the saying that
'insanity is doing the same thing over and over again
and expecting different results.' He wondered if his
fellow Members weren't more in need of advice from
psychiatrists than from economists at this point." -- John Fund

"No wonder politicians love government schools.
Where do you think the dumb masses come from that can be
so easily led and manipulated?" -- Neal Boortz

"People who seek political power are, with exceptions
too rare to matter, never to be trusted; at best,
such people are vain and officious busybodies.
People who actually achieve political power are to be
trusted even less than those who seek it without success;
winning elections requires a measure of deceitfulness
and Machiavellian immorality that no decent person comes
close to possessing." -- Donald Boudreaux

"The personal qualities necessary for attaining office
are practically the opposite of those demanded by the
office itself. The trouble with the damn system is
that it selects for the skills needed to get elected,
and nothing else. A test that you can only pass by
cheating can't possibly select honest people." -- James
P. Hogan

"Our current political system ensures not that the
worst will get on top -- though they often do -- but
that the best will never even apply." -- Paul Jacob

"The high-minded definition of politics is: 'the art or
science of government; the art or science concerned with
guiding or influencing governmental policy.' It is
only when you keep reading in Webster's Ninth New
Collegiate Dictionary that you get closer to the truth:
'political activities characterized by artful and often
dishonest practices'." -- Cal Thomas

"The government consists of a gang of men exactly like
you and me. They have, taking one with another, no
special talent for the business of government; they have
only a talent for getting and holding office." -- H.L.
Mencken

"It's always amusing to see how much less the political
class knows than the rest of us do. ... it's never
occurred to [the likes of Senators Brownback and Obama]
that they bear a worse stigma than any AIDS patient,
being almost universally regarded as blowhards, crooks,
dopes, and fools." -- Stephen Cox, Liberty, February 2007

"Washington has a mysterious
power to turn perfectly reasonable, wholesome,
well-meaning human beings into equivocating crooked
gasbags." -- David Harsanyi

"Did you know that a large group
of baboons is called a congress? Coincidence? I
think not." - Alice Nelson

"[Political] offices are as acceptable here as
elsewhere, and whenever a man casts a longing eye on
them, a rottenness begins in his conduct." -- Thomas
Jefferson, 1799

"The United States was supposed to have a limited
government because the founders knew political power
attracts swarms of crooks, demagogues and despots as
surely as horse manure attracts swarms of horseflies."
-- Rick Gaber

"The problem with politics isn't the money; it's the
power." -- Harry
Browne

"The problem isn't the abuse of power; it's the power
to abuse." -- Michael Cloud

"Give politicians power and it certainly will be abused
eventually -- if not by today's politicians, then by
their successors." -- Harry Browne

"In order to become the master, the politician poses as
the servant." -- Charles de Gaulle

"Politicians are the craftiest and most cunning of all
con artists and salesmen. They can manipulate even
the most cherished beliefs and intellectual arguments to
convince you to give them immense coercive power over
other people and eventually, even over you.
They're so good at it that they can even convince many
to become fanatic supporters, and themselves to believe
their own bullshit." -- Rick Gaber
"Never was a government that was not composed of liars,
malefactors and thieves." -- Marcus Tullius Cicero, brilliant
philosopher, writer, political scientist, orator,
humorist and last Free Consul of Rome, before he was
murdered on the orders of that despicable despot Mark
Anthony, doing his utmost to demonstrate and underscore
Cicero's observation

"Who may we look to for a reprieve from these
money-grubbers and looters? We cannot look to our
neighbors and fellow citizens, for they are as dumb as
posts. They complain about high taxes and then
vote these morons into office anyway." -- Cody

"Never believe anything in politics until it has been
officially denied." -- Otto von Bismarck

"Someone once noted that a 'gaffe' in Washington is
when a politician accidentally tells the truth." -- Jonah
Goldberg

"People often ask me why I left the Senate, and I
always tell them after eight years in Washington, I
longed for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood." --
TV actor Fred Thompson, Former U.S. Senator

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the
populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to
safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of
hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L.
Mencken

"No one ever died from smoking marijuana, but millions
of people have died by believing politicians." -- Harry
Browne
"For those looking for security, be forewarned that
there's nothing more insecure than a political promise."
-- Harry
Browne

"Most politicians believe in just one thing -- winning
elections. They'll say anything to get in office
and stay there." -- Harry Browne

"One reason the economy is such a mess is that
politicians care far more about keeping their jobs than
about helping you keep yours." -- Steve Dasbach

"Politicians are politicians all of the time -- whether
they're helping themselves to an extra-serving of
farm-subsidy bacon, writing new laws about when their
opponents can and can't run ads about them or appointing
bureaucrats to enforce those laws. ... There are
no angels at the FEC. There aren't any in Congress
or at the White House. And the sooner arrogant
reformers like Sen. McCain and Fred Wertheimer realize
that they're no angels either, the better for all of us
-- and for the Constitution." -- Ryan Sager

"For those who fancy that government's projects are
uniquely important, or for those who imagine that
holding government office makes someone unusually
saintly or trustworthy, entrusting government with power
that we would never entrust to our neighbors or other
private citizens might seem sensible. To me, it's
dangerous, unjustified, and unjustifiable." -- Dr. Donald Boudreaux

"We should be long past applauding politicians of any
hue: they got us into this mess. The best deserve a
probationary opportunity to prove themselves, the worst
should be in jail." -- Gerald Warner

"It is the rare -- maybe even nonexistent -- politician
who will admit this, but number one on the politicians
to-do list is always to get reelected. Nothing
else comes close. The economy, the stock market,
the war on terrorism … NOTHING comes ahead of getting
reelected. Staying in power is job number one." --
Neal
Boortz

"The only true allegiance a politician has is to his
own re-election." -- Michelle Malkin

"Politics is all about getting and keeping power, and
in politics, the professionals in the business soon
learn that the only way to get and keep power is to
force people to talk to them. A full-time
legislature thinks of more and more things to regulate
and discuss." -- California Assemblyman Ray Haynes "Is there anything more dangerous
to the cause of liberty than a politician fixated on
re-election?" -- Neal
Boortz

"Any legislator up for re-election will vote against a
bad law if and only if there are enough other votes to
pass it." -- Bert Rand

"A politician in power tends to remain in power." --
Neal Boortz's "First Rule of Political
Dynamics"

"Cheap medical care is one of the most expensive things
there is. So long as politicians can create the
illusion of something for nothing, that gets them votes,
which is what it is all about, as far as they are
concerned." -- Dr.
Thomas Sowell

"Most of the founders of this country had day jobs for
years. They were not career politicians. ... We need
leaders with experience in the real world, not
experience in the phony world of politics." -- Dr. Thomas Sowell

"Politicians are forever coming up with 'solutions' to
virtually every imaginable imperfection in life. But, if
we give them more power and more of our money, we are
very unlikely to end up better off on net balance." -- Thomas Sowell

"The indignation of politicians
is NOT a good measure of the gravity of any
situation." -- Paul Harvey, 4-5-07

"A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
Apparently, so do many politicians." -- Rick Gaber

"One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and
programs by their intentions rather than their results."
- Dr. Milton Friedman

"Whenever the government
causes a crisis, Congress and the president of the
United States will almost surely give even more
power and authority to the agency that is most
responsible for the calamity." -- William L. Anderson

"It is fascinating to watch
politicians come up with 'solutions' to problems
that are a direct result of their previous
solutions. In many cases, the most efficient
thing to do would be to repeal their previous
solution and stop being so gung-ho for creating new
solutions in the future. But, politically,
that is the last thing they will do." -- Thomas
Sowell

"The modus operandi which politicians have loved for
so many years is: 'If it doesn't work, do more of it!'
" -- Ian Bernard

"Intelligence
collection has been given an additional bureaucracy
to correct the problems created by too much
bureaucracy in intelligence collection." -- P. J. O'Rourke

"The difference between congressmen and drunken sailors
is that drunken sailors are spending their own money."
-- Rep. Tom Feeney

"Congress' passing of the omnibus
spending bill without reading it shows more than
anything why they can't be trusted." -- Neal Boortz
"Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are
decent, hardworking, honest Americans. It's the
other lousy two percent that get all the
publicity. But then, we elected them." -- Lily
Tomlin

"One useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and
three is a Congress." -- John Adams
"Politicians detest self-sufficient citizens.
Politicians need to be needed. When we get
socialized medicine, you will be completely dependent
upon politicians for your medical care, as Canadians are
today. That's why if you need an MRI in Canada,
you have to wait three months -- unless you pay certain
kinds of homage to the right politicians." -- Neal
Boortz

"[Professional politicians] don't mind if price
controls cause shortages of health care. In fact,
they welcome the prospect, because then they can impose
rationing; they can impose priorities, and tell everyone
how much of what kind of medical care they can
have. And besides, ... there's that deeply
satisfying rush of power." -- Murray
N.
Rothbard
"The problem with politics isn't the money; it's the
power." -- Harry
Browne

"Those who have been once intoxicated with power and
have derived any kind of emolument from it can never
willingly abandon it." -- Edmund Burke

"Robbery, when legalized, is profitable, at least for
the middle men. And the middle men in the legal plunder
game are the politicians and their clients with
government jobs." -- Wirkman
Virkkala

"As property, honestly obtained, is best secured by an
equality of rights, so ill-gotten property depends for
protection on a monopoly of rights. He who has robbed
another of his property, will next endeavor to disarm
him of his rights, to secure that property; for when the
robber becomes the legislator he believes himself
secure." -- Thomas Paine, Dissertations on First
Principles of Government

"In politics, nothing happens by
accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned
that way." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"And now the court has let the
most powerful of American interest groups -- incumbent
politicians -- have their way with the First
Amendment. Wednesday's message to the mere
people was clear: Shut up, the court explained." -- Paul Greenberg.
"Pledge allegiance to your principles, your family, your
faith, but don't be foolish enough to pledge allegiance
to a gang of thieves." -- Lew Rockwell

"The government consists of a gang of men exactly like
you and me. They have, taking one with another, no
special talent for the business of government; they have
only a talent for getting and holding office.
Their principal device to that end is to search out
groups who pant and pine for something they can't get
and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out
of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is
made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other
words, government is a broker in pillage, and every
election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen
goods." -- H.L. Mencken
"Politicians never accuse you of 'greed' for
wanting other people's money --- only for wanting to
keep your own money." -- Joseph Sobran

"Lofty talk about 'social justice' or 'fairness' boils
down to greatly expanded powers for politicians, since
those pretty words have no concrete definition. They are
a blank check for creating disparities in power that
dwarf disparities in income -- and are far more
dangerous." -- Thomas Sowell

"Try walking the halls of Congress. It's Abercrombie
& Fitch meets the Hair Club for Men. Lots of
really photogenic young people kissing up to lots of
insufferable blowhards. Separated by one or two
generations, most of these players have only one real
thing in common: They have never been weaned from the
public teat. The closest they've ever come to meeting a
payroll is when they come together to spend everyone
else's payroll taxes." -- Michelle Malkin, here.
"The average federal income tax rate for the 437,036
individual returns filed for the year 1916 was .0275
(2.75 percent). And to think that Senator Nelson Aldrich
had urged passage of the income tax, vehemently
bellowing on the floor of the Senate his impassioned
assurances that it would never, never, EVER go
above one percent!" -- Rick Gaber

"For those looking for security, be forewarned that
there's nothing more insecure than a political promise."
-- Harry Browne

"Anyone who does not understand the utter cynicism of
politics does not understand politics." -- Thomas Sowell

"If there's a distinct group of Americans who harbor
open contempt for constitutional principles and rule of
law, it's lawyers, judges and members of Congress." --
Walter Williams in his column, "Attacks
on
the Rule of Law"

"There is more selfishness and less principle among
members of Congress ... than I had any conception of,
before I became President of the U.S." -- James K. Polk,
December 16, 1846

"... both individuals and companies are using the
Netherlands as a haven for productive activity. ... This
is good news for all taxpayers. The rich directly
benefit, since greedy politicians are unable to seize as
much of their money. And the rest of us benefit, since
this puts downward pressure on tax rates as governments
try to keep the geese that lay the golden eggs from
flying away." -- Daniel J. Mitchell
"Idealism is the noble toga that political gentlemen
drape over their will to power." -- Aldous Huxley

"You may scoff at the Tooth Fairy if you like. But the
Tooth Fairy's approach has gotten more politicians
elected than any economist's analysis." -- Thomas Sowell

"The purpose of the Senate is to keep 100 middle aged
knuckleheads out of the private sector where they can do
real harm." -- P.J. O'Rourke

"Some years ago an excellent professor of economics
told his class in his gravelly voice, 'If you pay me
$50,000 a year to solve a problem, I damned sure ain't
going to solve it.' " -- Charley Reese, Orlando
Sentinel 2-24-2000
"If you pay me $150,000 a year to solve all the
country's problems, not only will I NOT solve any, I'll
make A LOT MORE NEW ONES while appearing to 'solve' the
old ones." -- Randy Richards

"What this country needs are more unemployed
politicians." -- Edward Langley

[A demonstration of how politicians
deserve to be talked about]: See"The
contrast was exquisite. Politicians yakking about a
supposed problem while real people in the real
world make the yakking moot." HERE.
"This country has gotten where it is in spite
of politics, not by aid of it." -- Will
Rogers, 1935

"This government never furthered any enterprise but
by the alacrity with which it got out of its way."
-- Henry David Thoreau in his essay, "Civil
Disobedience"

"Doing nothing in the public policy world allows much
more to be done in the real world." -- Thomas Hazlett

"... you know that a plan was dreamed up by politicians
and pollsters -- and not by, oh, anyone who knows what
they are talking about -- when the numbers are nice and
round with a catchy ring to them..." -- Jerry Taylor
"People constantly speak of 'the government' doing
this or that, as they might speak of God doing it. But
the government is really nothing but a group of men, and
usually they are very inferior men. They may have some
better man working for them, but they themselves are
seldom worthy of any respect." -- H.L. Mencken

"I was raised with the idea that if you're not smart
enough to do science you can do politics." -- Dr.
Michael Crichton, 1-28-05

"Government, when it is examined, turns out to be
nothing more nor less than a group of fallible men with
the political force to act as though they were
infallible." -- Robert LeFevre, in his essay, Aggression
is
Wrong

"It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous
way of making decisions than by putting those
decisions in the hands of people who pay no price
for being wrong." -- Thomas Sowell
"When looking for a reason why things go wrong, never
rule out sheer stupidity." -- Brian M. Wilson

"Politics is the business of tinkering with other
people's lives." -- Nolan Neathercutt

"Everything the government touches turns to crap." --
Ringo Starr

"Turning to politicians is the worst way to solve a
problem." -- Jim Babka

"'Solve' and 'problems' are not in the Constitution."
-- Doug Newman

"Government does not solve problems. It subsidizes
them." -- Ronald Reagan
"Being a politician means never having to say you're
sorry. You don't have to say, 'I never should have
voted to subsidize that ridiculous Enron project in
India.' ... After all, they're greedy businessmen
and you're a selfless public servant." -- Harry Browne

"Whenever you come across a
screw-up this big, you know the government is behind
it." -- Ann
Coulter

"In our time, political speech
and writing are largely the defense of the
indefensible... Thus, political language has to
consist largely of euphemism, question-begging, and
sheer cloudy vagueness... Political language [is]
designed to make lies sound truthful and murder
respectable." -- George Orwell, "Politics and the
English Language," 1945

"Anything seems more appealing
than immersing myself in the sewer of daily politics."
-- Allen Forkum

"Politicians are masters of
sounding like they agree with you." -- Michael Cloud

"In a perfect world, virtually
every day's coverage of the state legislature -- or
Congress, for that matter -- would begin with the
words 'As expected, lawmakers took no action.' ...
Both parts of the sentence herald good news. In most
cases, the republic is better off and its citizens
sleep better when politicans take no action. ... Plus,
wouldn't it be great if legislatures were 'expected'
not to monkey around with our laws, our liberties, and
our livelihoods most of the time?"-- John
Hood
"Imagine how fast Social Security would be fixed or
replaced if Congressmen had to rely on it like they
force everyone else to, instead of on their lucrative
special pension fund, sometimes paying millions a
year. Heck, imagine how they might even want to
learn about real
economics instead of all those fallacies once they
had such incentives." -- Bert Rand

"My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds
of people: those who do the work and those who take the
credit. He told me to try to be in the first
group; there was less competition there." -- Indira
Gandhi
"Professional politicians are skilled at taking credit
for successes of others and blaming others for mistakes
of their own. Exactly the kind of phony braggart
slime you caution your daughter against dating." -- Rick
Gaber

"Elected leaders tend to believe they are responsible
for a lot more than they really are. Like the little boy
on his first plane trip 'helping' the plane by flapping
his arms as the Boeing 747 begins to ascend, legislators
often seem to believe that somehow they run the economy
and solve lots of problems." -- Curt Leonard

"So far the Sarbanes-Oxley bill has wiped out
$1 trillion of market capitalization, has done nothing
to improve business performance or investor value, and
in fact has provided absolutely no benefits to the
overall economy whatsoever, unless you're a large
corporation which enjoys seeing
the
government hamper your smaller upstart competitors.
It has, in fact, turned out to be
nothing more than another poor excuse for politicians to claim they've "done
something." Check it out HERE." -- Rick
Gaber
"Congress does two things well: nothing and
overreacting." -- Rep. Mike Oxley

"Overreaction is one of the things that congress
specializes in. I can't think of anything congress
does better than overreact." -- Fred Barnes, 3-9-07

"What the government is good at is collecting taxes,
taking away your freedoms and killing people. It's
not good at much else." -- Tom Clancy onKudlow and
Cramer 9/2/03

"I have never seen a politician purport to have bad
intentions, no matter what the agenda. Hitler thought he
was doing the world a favor." -- Doug Newman

“We have a lot of politicians who have really
small brains and really big hearts.” - Sen.Rand
Paul

"I try to ONLY ridicule people who's efforts are
sincere. Very little trouble has been caused in the
world by insincere efforts. An occasional seduction
maybe. There were very few insincere Stalinists or
Nazis." -- P.J.
O'Rourke

"Some politicians actually work their butts off.
But it's usually in just a frantic, futile attempt to
justify their neurotic parasitic existence." -- Bert
Rand

"The idea that money is
corrupting innocent politicians would be laughable if
it did not lead to such dangerous legislation..."
-- Dr.
Thomas
Sowell.
"It doesn't matter whether the coercive individuals or
groups identify themselves as bandits, Mafia, Church,
party, government, chief, Pharaoh, king, high priest or
president. If they initiate force, they are all simply
criminals, regardless of their aliases and pretensions."
-- Jarret Wollstein

"Politicians learned hundreds of years ago that people
who had little material wealth were incredibly jealous
of those who had more than they did. This
deep-seated envy was ripe for exploitation -- and the
exploitation has been running rampant for generations."
-- Neal Boortz

"Given the low level of competence among politicians,
every American should become a libertarian. The
government that governs least is certainly the best
choice when fools, opportunists and grafters run it.
When power is for sale, then the government power should
be severely limited. When power is abused, then the less
power the better." -- Charley
Reese

"There are enough fools in Washington to destroy the
country without any help from Muslim terrorists." -- Paul
Craig
Roberts

"I would like to offer a candidate to be added to the
venerable list of English collective nouns: a scum of
politicians." -- Dr.
Jack
Wheeler"Politicians are frightened to
death of people who actually believe in liberty."
-- Neal
Boortz

"The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man
who is able to think things out for himself, without
regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos." --
H. L. Mencken, 1919

"For all their talk about the virtues of democracy,
many incumbent politicians really don't like it when
voters have a voice--not if that voice is effective."--
Paul Jacob and David M. Brown

"When will the
world wake up and realize that most politicians,
especially in the poorest countries of the world,
are nothing more than glorified gangsters who view
government as simply a fiercely-guarded monopoly on
every form of compulsion and extortion to be
perpetrated in a specific geographical area?
Why do you think the largest amounts of 'foreign
aid' extracted from the gullible diplomats of
wealthier countries wind up in those politicians'
pockets or Swiss bank accounts, despite all the
virtuous-sounding rhetoric?"--Bert Rand
"Understanding politicians and what they are likely to
do is much easier once you realize that [most people] in
politics ... have more in common psychologically and
morally with your typical member of a street gang than
with most of the people who actually vote for them." --
Perry de Havilland

"The one thing government has which we (you or I or any
corporation) DON'T have, is the ability to use deadly
force to accomplish its goals." -- Neal
Boortz

"Ultimately, however, as the Austrian economist Joseph
Schumpeter pointed out, a powerful bureaucratic class is
in the same relation to commerce as was the scorpion in
Aesop to the dog on whose back he crossed the river.
They will destroy commerce and establish socialism, even
if it kills them, because that is their nature." -- John
Derbyshire

"There is no limit to the hunger politicians have for
the money you've worked so hard for. ... You can tell
them to take a hike, but then the guns come out." -- Neal
Boortzcopied from
www.FreedomKeys.com/politicians2.htm"Predatory politicians (are there
any other types?) can now hone in on your property, if
they see it desirable as a tax cash cow for their
nefarious schemes, invoke the power of eminent domain
to seize your property in order to generate more
revenue, and you cannot do anything about it." --
Edward J. Williamson

"Politics creates hate and anger
in people. It is inherently civil war.
Since the State is based on coercion and the threat of
violence, so is politics. Politics is about
nothing more than who gets to apply how much violence
to people. Politics sets people at war with each
other. ... Politics also makes people paranoid,
because they always think if the opposing party gets
into power, they'll do terrible things to them."-- Bob
Wallace"Congress is a Mafia running a
protection racket.. ." -- Dr.
Jack
Wheeler.

"The politicians don't just want your money. They want
your soul. They want you to be worn down by taxes until
you are dependent and helpless." -- James Dale Davidson
Founder, National Taxpayers Union

"Our current tax code is one that was designed by and
for the benefit of politicians and lobbyists. It
punishes achievement and rewards laziness. It
punishes the voting blocks unimportant to politicians,
and rewards voting blocks who keep them in office." -- Neal Boortz
"There are just two things standing in between the
American people and their freedom: Democrats and
Republicans." -- Joe Seehusen

"Just because you do not take an interest in politics
doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you." --
Pericles (430 B.C.)

"Over the years the U.S. has become more and more
twisted by a government of the politicians, by the
politicians, and for the politicians." -- Rick Gaber

"Confronted with economic problems, politicians always
blame the private sector first ... [even] blaming the
problem on the solution." -- Richard
L.
Gordon"There is no company -- no
corporation on earth that engages in accounting fraud
to the extent the Imperial Federal Government of the
United Sates does. Not many congressmen are
willing to come forward with the details." -- Neal
Boortz

"Business people make business decisions.
Politicians make political decisions. Put
politicians in charge of a business, and they still will
make political decisions. It's their nature." -- Garry
Reed
"Contrary to popular belief, people who buy
political influence are vastly outnumbered by people who
are sold political influence by creative or
desperate politicians." -- Rick
Gaber

"I don't think it's bribery; I think it's
extortion. Bribery, you know, is when the person
that's giving the money does it voluntarily. What
it is in Washington is extortion because they all ask
for the money." -- Sen.
John McCain

"The problem with politics isn't the money; it's the
power." -- Harry Browne

"I have come to believe that politicians are in the
business of 'marketing' their product to the public, by
exaggerating threats and over-selling government
solutions." -- Arnold Kling

"[Certain politicians] don't mind if price controls
cause shortages of health care. In fact, they
welcome the prospect, because then they can impose
rationing; they can impose priorities, and tell everyone
how much of what kind of medical care they can
have. And besides, ... there's that deeply
satisfying rush of power. We should know by now
that reasoned arguments by economists or disillusioned
ex-controllers are not going to stop them." -- Murray N.
Rothbard
"A lot of what is called 'public service' consists of
making hoops for other people to jump through. It is a
great career for those who cannot feel fulfilled unless
they are telling other people what to do." -- Thomas
Sowell

"Contrary to the romantic way in which our history
is/has been portrayed, politicians are NOT 'men of good
conscience.' In the real world, it takes a
psychopath to want to rule over other human beings.
Unless you want to define the word 'service' in the
context of what a bull does to a cow, in no way are the
efforts of politicians in this regard any kind of
'service'." -- Edward Britton

"There's something psychotic about people who go around
asking whether large business concerns should be allowed
to operate without first getting government permission
for every little thing, but who never ask whether
politicians should be allowed to shake down businesses
and businessmen any damn time they want to." -- Rick
Gaber

"Since Congress makes the laws they are under the
delusion that anything they do is legal, no matter if it
is unwise, unethical, or un-Constitutional." -- Jim
Babka

"[Politicians] -- they'll give you everything you want
to your face -- and then, as you walk away, they'll
shoot you in the back because it's fun to watch you
die." -- Bob
Crandall, former president, American Airlines

"The impulse to control everything pervades those who
make up the governmental class. That is, after all, why
someone decides to spend their working life in politics
and applying the collective means of coercion to others.
The extent to which this desire to impose force backed
control can be realized is exactly what defines whether
or not you are 'free' or a 'slave' of the state." -- Perry de Havilland

"Politicians are the same all over. They promise
to build a bridge even when there is no river." --
Nikita Khruschev

"By far the most inappropriate and ridiculous name
change any major sports team has perpetrated was the
Washington Bullets' changing its name to the Washington
'Wizards.' Give me a break." -- Rick Gaber

"In politics, absurdity is not a handicap." -- Napoleon
Bonaparte

"People constantly speak of 'the government'
doing this or that, as they might speak of God doing it.
But the government is really nothing but a group of men,
and usually they are very inferior men. They may have
some better man working for them, but they themselves
are seldom worthy of any respect." -- H.L. Mencken

"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional
takes a bit longer." -- Henry Kissinger

"The motto of the nation's capital should be 'Land
of the spree and home of the depraved'." -- Rick
Gaber

"No one talks about the real ethics disaster in
Washington. It's that many members of Congress will
listen to any argument against a bill except for two:
that it's not moral or that it's not Constitutional." --
Rep. Ron Paul

"The closer one gets to elections or wars, the further
one gets from the truth." -- Tony
Blankley

"Politicians who tell you they'll raise taxes on
businesses 'but not on you' are taking you for a
fool. Almost all business taxes are passed along
to employees in the form of lower wages and less hiring,
stockholders in the form of lower dividends and stock
values, and especially, consumers in the form of
higher prices!" -- Rick Gaber

"The trouble with this country is that there are too
many politicians who believe, with a conviction based on
experience, that you can fool all of the people all of
the time." -- Franklin P. Adams

"A Diogenesian search for an honest person would rarely
lead to the author of a memoir." -- Tony
Blankley

"You know, if government were a product, selling it
would be illegal. ... Government contains impure
ingredients -- as anybody who's looked at Congress can
tell you. ... government practices deceptive
advertising. And the merest glance at the federal
budget is enough to convict the government of perjury,
extortion, and fraud. ... in a nutshell: government
should be against the law. Term limits aren't
enough. We need jail." -- P.J.
O'Rourke

(from "a revised Constitution for our times"):
"Section 2: The House of Representatives shall be
composed of persons who own at least two dark suits and
have not been indicted recently." -- Dave Barry

"There are people in Congress who aren't very
bright. In fact, some of them are just plain
brain-dead." -- Neal Boortz"

"Somehow, for some reason, we’ve turned over all the
power to insane, irrational, and generally wacked out
people. We call them politicians." -- Toby Olvera

"I've always found that avoiding insanity is useful in
life -- which in American politics sometimes puts one in
the minority." -- Tony Blankley

"Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Colin Campbell
says that every member of the Georgia General Assembly
with an IQ above 85 should be required to wear a crash
helmet. That should take about ... oh, say 15
helmets?" -- Neal Boortz

"Why do so many busybodies, control freaks, neurotics
and even psychotics become politicians? Because
they can have an effect on the world and gain at least
temporary respect without doing anything really
productive. If they're really lucky, they can even
gain fame and fortune while doing incredible long-term
damage!" -- Randy Richards

"Remember those kids in school you really hated?
You know the ones, the hall monitors, the classroom
snitches, the teacher suck-ups? Well, those are
the kids who grow up to be our politicians and
bureaucrats and regulators. They are the freedom
haters." -- Garry Reed

"A man on his owns knows that he is best advised to
leave his dumbbell neighbors alone. But let him join a
political party, and he fantasizes that he has the right
and the power to tell everyone on the block what to do."
-- Bill Bonner

"With a few rare exceptions, people in government are
pathetic mediocrities who accumulate power over others
as their neurotic substitute for their missing sense of
self-worth, a sense which becomes ever-more elusive as
time erodes any likelihood of their leaving government
for the real world and creating new values which never
existed before -- instead of stealing and redistributing
old ones which did." -- Bert Rand

"Epitaph on the Politician"
by Hilaire Belloc

Here richly, with
ridiculous display,
The Politician's corpse
was laid away.
While all of his acquaintance sneered and
slanged
I wept: for I had longed
to see him hanged.

"Detractory or defamatory
lies should not be quite opposite to the
qualities the person is supposed to have. Thus
it will not be found according to the sound
rules of pseudology to report of a pious and
religious prince that he neglects his devotions
and would introduce heresy; but you may report
of a merciful Prince that he has pardoned a
criminal who did not deserve it." -- Dr. John
Arbuthnot, Treatise on the Art of
Political Lying, 1714

"A pathological need to control other people with the threat
of violence (i.e. laws) is more or less the defining
mental state of members of the political class
everywhere in the western world today." -- Perry de Havilland

"I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him
carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am
very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all
possible means -- except by getting off his back." --
Leo Tolstoy

"But I want you to LOVE ME!!!!" -- Franz-Josef,
Emperor of Austria-Hungary, as he screamed at a subject
while having him horsewhipped.

"I'm always skeptical of politicians who've never held
a real job in the real world, or of would-be presidents
who've never proven themselves capable of being
successful in business and decisive in critical
situations." -- Rick Gaber

"In politics, as in fishing, you don't have to be a
genius. You just have to be smarter than the
fish." -- Zev
Chafets

"The single most exciting thing you encounter in
government is competence, because it's so rare." --
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, 1976

"The single most frightening thing you encounter is confidence-in-government
because it's so common." -- Rick Gaber

See: "it is becoming increasingly clear that most
politicians don’t have a clue about what causes gas
prices to rise" -- Dr.
Lynne
Kiesling

"In reality, because government actions have been a
major factor in forcing up the price of health care in
America, we now have the perverse situation in which
someone who either does not have access to private
insurance or qualifies for government payments must face
the system out of pocket. While politicians and their
allies are fond of decrying the fact that at any given
time, millions of Americans lack health insurance, they
forget that they themselves have played a major role in
creating the conditions that have made going without
health insurance a recipe for individual financial
calamity." -- William L.
Anderson

"It is no crime to be ignorant of
economics, which is, after all, a specialized
discipline and one that most people consider to be a
'dismal science.' But it is totally
irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on
economic subjects while remaining in this state of
ignorance." -- Murray
N.
Rothbard

"There is a small minority of well-educated people with
relatively sensible views on economics, and an extremely
tiny minority of economists with highly sensible views.
Then there's everybody else. ... To win, a politician
needs to please the median voter. It makes little
difference if a few thousand economists think you a
fool." -- Bryan Caplan

"The cultivation -- even celebration -- of victimhood
by intellectuals, tort lawyers, politicians and the
media is both cause and effect of today's culture of
complaint." -- George Will

"For the average person walking down a dark street late
at night, a promise from a politician is worth far less
than a .38 Special." -- James Bovard

"The whole modern world has divided itself into
Conservatives and Progressives. The business of
Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business
of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from
being corrected." -- G. K. Chesterton

"For years, liberals have demonstrated a near religious
devotion to the cause of 'cleaning up elections'
with campaign finance reform, the wondrous panacea that
would finally rescue our great country from corruption
in politics. ... How anyone could believe that corrupt
politicians could or would legislate away their own
corruption is completely beyond me." -- Anthony
Gregory

"Multiculturalism asserts that all cultures are equal
and therefore none may criticize another; intellectuals and politicians are
therefore reluctant to declare the obvious superiority
of Western culture to Islamic culture." -- Edwin A. Locke

"If I was to interrupt this article every few
sentences, asking you whether or not I was making a good
impression on you, I hope and believe that you would
think I was a servile jerk. Yet this is what our
politicians are doing in every speech." -- Christopher Hitchens

"The Senate voted 97-0 for an anti-spam bill to stop
those annoying things you get on your computer. The
senators made it very clear that when you start
misleading the American people and start taking their
money over false promises, 'That's our turf,
buddy'." -- Jay Leno

"Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.
I forget who said that." -- John Alejandro King

"Politicians generally do the right thing only when all
other options are exhausted." -- Dan Mitchell

"This country has come to feel the same when congress
is in session as when a baby gets hold of a hammer." --
Will Rogers

"If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a
nail."-- Abraham Maslow

"When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem
looks like your thumb." -- Mr.
Lizard

“If you really want to engage in
policy activity, don’t make that your vocation.
Make it your avocation. Get a job. Get a
secure base of income. Otherwise, you’re going
to get corrupted and destroyed.” -- Dr. Milton Friedman

"If you want money from politicians, you ought not to
be surprised when those same politicians take an
interest in the money they are giving to you. After all,
they were the ones who stole it, and they have to
justify this thievery and to ensure that its proceeds
are distributed in a way that satisfies their supporters
and quiets their critics." -- Brian Micklethwait

"Hillary does nothing without careful calculation. She
knows that politicians – provided they have real power –
who bash entire industries tend to raise huge dollars
from individuals in those industries. Certain types of
politicians are drawn to this marketing technique
because they think the 'bashing' also can be held up as
proof that they are not being corrupted. This
scheme is called 'putting the squeeze on.' Does that
phrase remind you of anything?" -- Don Luskin

*Very few American
Presidents ever took a course in economics. Only two ever had a degree in
it. Pathetic.

..

"I distinguish between two kinds of
politicians. There are those who view politics as a
tactical game, a game in which they do not reveal any
individuality, in which they lose their own face. There
are, however, leaders for whom politics is a means of
defending and furthering values. For them, it is a moral
pursuit. They do so because the values they cherish are
endangered. They're convinced that there are values worth
living for, and even values worth dying for. Otherwise
they would consider their life and work pointless. Only
such politicians are great politicians, and Ronald Reagan
was one of them." -- Lech
Walesa

"It is no
crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after
all, a specialized discipline and one that most
people consider to be a 'dismal science.' But
it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and
vociferous opinion on economic subjects while
remaining in this state of ignorance." -- Murray
N.
Rothbard

"Enron, of course, is exactly the kind
of corporation which could not exist in pure capitalism or
under the U.S. Constitution applied with only literal
meanings of the commerce and welfare clauses. As
a creature, in effect, of politicians and lawyers, the
same kinds of politicians and lawyers who sold the
bastardized meanings of the commerce and welfare clauses
to a gullible public, it was deliberately converted from a
small pipeline company into an international conglomerate
by conniving scoundrels who designed it from the beginning
to use the power of their favor-selling politician friends
to give it government contracts, subsidies, monopoly
powers, and favorable regulations to force
prospective customers to do business with them,
essentially at gunpoint. Obviously, this is is
fascism,
not capitalism, and what you get more and more of when you
work to transform what was once the rule of clear-cut law
into the rule of men (especially corrupt, nuance-inventing
judges and lawyers). Remember, fraud was illegal, as it
always should have been, long before the first regulation
was passed." -- Rick Gaber
"Environmental crusaders have spent the
past 30 years influencing ignorant, unprincipled or
gullible politicians to pass new laws and create new
agencies that affect everything from oil, to natural gas,
to nuclear power, to electricity. The net result is that
manacles have effectively been slapped around the ankles
of power suppliers, creating a huge disincentive for them
to construct any new (and what certainly would be more
energy efficient) power plants." -- Wayne Dunn
"As ever more rules and regulations
curtail the decisions individuals may make for themselves,
as ever greater proportions of people’s income are
siphoned off to be used as our leaders decide, as every
species of special interest pays tribute to predatory
politicos who suck the marrow from the bones of civil
society, individuals are reduced to ever more meaningless
atoms in the social cosmos. All of life becomes
politicized, which means corrupted by power. And as
individual liberty and individual rights die, all that is
decent in human society dies with them." -- Robert Higgs
See how politicians'
razzle-dazzle "item-pricing" laws actually hurt consumers
HERE.

..

"Some people have suggested that our tax laws should be
simplified so that the taxpayers could actually understand
them. How could this be done? My friend John Dorschner
proposes this system: Every year, on April 15, all members
of Congress would be placed in individual prison cells
with the necessary tax forms and a copy of the Tax Code.
They would remain locked in the cells, without food or
water, until they had completed their tax returns and
successfully undergone a full IRS audit. Of course this
system would probably result in a severe shortage of
congresspersons. But there might also be some drawbacks."
-- Dave Barry

"A group
of economists, after studying 258 U.S. Government
programs, found that " -- brace yourself --
politicians lied."HERE

"When a politician promises an
'increase' in government spending or a government program,
he really means an increase. When he says it will remain
'stable,' he really means an increase. And when he
threatens a 'cut,' he really means an increase." -- Bill
Winter, Liberator
Online, Vol. 9 No. 6

What
the heck do politicians mean when they open their
mouths?HERE'S
a good politicaltalk-to-english dictionary.

Even more predictable than the
post-Thanksgiving appearance of shopping-mall Santas
is the inability of pundits at this time of year to
say or to write "commercialism" without prefixing to
it the word "crass" - as we encounter in your pages
today in Tom Krattenmaker's "The real meaning of Christmas."

I challenge
this notion. Commerce is peaceful. It involves
sellers working hard and taking risks to bring to
market goods and services that consumers want to
buy. No one forces anyone to do anything; all is
voluntary.

What truly is
crass is politics - that sorry spectacle of
power-seeking ego-maniacs who, when not
pronouncing platitudes, are promising to help
group A by picking the pockets of group B. While
commerce is honest, politics is duplicitous. While
commerce is peaceful, politics inevitably pits
citizen against citizen. Far more enlightened and
ethical behavior is on display during any one day
in a shopping mall than the most intrepid observer
will find in a century on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The newly-hatched snake and the newly-born
rabbit came face to face. Both were so
young their eyes had not yet opened. Neither
knew what the other was, so they decided to feel
each other and make a guess.

First the snake slithered over the rabbit and
then concluded: "You have warm fur, whiskers,
long ears and you hop around. You must
be a bunny."

Then the rabbit ran its paws over the snake.
"You are slippery, you crawl on the ground,
and have no balls. You must be a politician."

------

A doctor, an engineer and a politician were
traveling together in the countryside. They
stopped at a small country inn for the night. "I
have only two rooms, so one of you will have to
sleep in the barn," said the innkeeper.
The doctor volunteered to sleep in the barn,
went outside, and the others went to bed.
A short time later they were awakened by a
knock. It was the doctor, who said,
"There's a cow in that barn. I'm a Hindu, and it
would offend my beliefs to sleep next to a
sacred animal." The engineer said he'd be
willing to sleep in the barn and left. The
others went back to bed, but soon were awakened
by another knock. It was the engineer, who
said, "There's a pig in the barn. I'm Muslim,
and I can't sleep next to an unclean animal." So
the politician was sent to the barn. It was
getting really late, the others were very tired
and soon fell asleep. But then they were
awakened by an even louder knocking. They
opened the door and were surprised by what they
saw: It was the cow and the pig!

------

Five surgeons are discussing who were the best
patients to operate on.

The first surgeon says, 'I like to see
Accountants on my operating table because when
you open them up, everything inside is
numbered.'

The second responds, 'Yeah, but you should
try Electricians! Everything inside them is
colour-coded.'

The third surgeon says, 'No, I really think
Librarians are the best; everything inside
them is in alphabetical order.'

The fourth surgeon chimes in, 'You know I
like Construction Workers. Those guys always
understand when you have a few parts left over
at the end, and when the job takes longer than
you said it would.'

But the fifth surgeon shut them all up when
he observed, 'You're all wrong. Politicians
are the easiest to operate on. There's no
guts, no heart, no balls, no brains, and no
spine, and there are only two moving parts -
the mouth and the arsehole - and they are
interchangeable'

You should, therefore, be biased to vote against the
incumbent in any and all elections. All of them will
lie to you, all of them will attempt to steal your money
and freedoms but their stupidity means it will take them a
couple of years to work out how to do so. There may be
another election before they do, at which you can vote
them out and start again.

-

Whenever you consider this
collecton of clowns, always remember, as Neal
Boortz says, "The one thing government has
which we (you or
I or any corporation)DON'T have, is
the ability to use deadly
force to accomplish its goals."